SITE DETAILS

Lavender Hill Cemetery

Enfield

Summary:

Lavender Hill is so-called for the lavender that was once grown in this area. Lavender Hill Burial Board was set up in 1871 and opened the 9-acre Lavender Hill Cemetery in 1872, with two chapels, one Anglican and the other Nonconformist, and a stone lodge at the main entrance. It was well-planted with trees and the layout of serpentine walks and roads remains today. The cemetery was enlarged in 1897 by 3 acres, and has since been further enlarged. To the north the site becomes a more open area with fewer trees and accommodates recent burials.

The information shown above was correct at the time of the last update 01/04/2011
Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news. www.enfield.gov.uk

Fuller information:

Lavender Hill is so-called because lavender was once grown in this area. Lavender Hill Burial Board was set up in 1871 and the 9-acre cemetery was opened on 27 July 1872 on part of the Hundred Acres which belonged to the parish. The cemetery lay-out and its buildings were designed by Mr T J Hill, architect of Enfield, at a cost of around £9,000. The buildings consist of two mirror-image chapels, one Anglican and the other Nonconformist, and a stone lodge on the main entrance on Cedar Road, which has stone gate piers and wrought iron gates. The western Non-Conformist chapel later became a store.

The cemetery was planted with numerous conifers and other trees and shrubs throughout, with Cedars, Wellingtonia and other ornamental conifers on the slopes, as well as oak, lime, horse chestnut further north. The original layout of serpentine walks and roadways also remains, now tarmac. At the junction of some of these paths are early monuments dating from the 1870s, including that of William Buzzard (d.1877) with an urn on a red granite plinth; the Celtic Cross for Benjamin Godfrey (d.1872); and a large chest tomb for James Whatman Bosanquet (d.1877) of Claysmore, who was instrumental in the building of St John the Baptist Church at Clay Hill (q.v.). Philip Twells, MP (d.1880) has a monument near the Anglican chapel; a banker in the City of London, Twells had purchased the Chase Side House estate in Enfield in 1865, which remained in the family until the death of Mrs Twells in 1898, following which part of the estate was purchased by Enfield UDC and became the site of the new Library and Town Park (q.v.).

The cemetery was enlarged in 1897 by a further 3 acres, and has since been further enlarged. To the north the cemetery becomes a more open area with some trees planted and more recent burials. Now under the administration of the London Borough of Enfield, a new cemetery site of 4.99 hectares, Strayfield Road Extension, was opened in 1997 nearby, reached via a country lane from Lavender Hill Cemetery; it is next to an old Nursery at Clay Hill, abutting Hillyfields Park (q.v.)

Sources consulted:

Revd George Hodson (Church History) and Edward Ford (General History), 'A History of Enfield in the County of Middlesex including its Royal and Ancient Manors, the Chase and the Duchy of Lancaster, with Notices of its Worthies, and its Natural History, Etc. Also an account of The Church and the Charities, and a History of the New River' (Enfield Press, printed by J H Meyers, 1873); C Webb, revised ed. of P Wolfston,' Greater London Cemeteries and Crematoria', Society of Genealogists, 3rd ed. 1994; Arthur Mee 'The King's England: London North of the Thames except the City and Westminster', (Hodder & Stoughton, 1972); Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4: North (Penguin, 1998); Edward Walford, 'Village London, the Story of Greater London, Part 2 - North and East', first published 1883/4 (1985 ed., The Alderman Press).

Grid ref:

TQ319981

Size in hectares:

11.62

On EH National Register :

No

EH grade:

Site on EH Heritage at Risk list:

Registered common or village green
on Commons Registration Act 1965:

No

Protected under London Squares
Preservation Act 1931:

No

The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.